Indiana almost made it because they
beat Michigan State on the road.
Beat Michigan State at home.
Lost by 3 at 4/5 seed Maryland
Lost by 11 at Top 10/12 ranked Michigan
Lost by 5 at home vs Iowa
Lost by 3 at home to Ohio State
Lost by 2 at Purdue
Won 4 straight games down the stretch before losing by 4 to Ohio State in the 1st round of the B1G tournament.
I know the OOC slate was extremely tough but they had injuries to Morgan and their starting PG Phinisee, which impacted them more than the strength of OOC.
We keep seeing OOC is mattering and it is not a large impact to making the dance....you have to be as competitive as you can at all times.
What matters for RU comes down to being consistent and closing the gap in the 21 to 22 B1G games, Pittsburgh, Seton Hall and St Bonaventure. These are the 25 games that matter more.
RU can have 3 to 4 blowout losses. Those are going to happen. But they cannot be obscene or completely out of hand like a young team had early in the B1G slate.
Here are the games last year.
Maryland home loss 77-63.....that game has to be 77-72 or less, if we lose, where the game is actually a game for 35 to 38 minutes.
88-70 loss at Minnesota....as a comparison later in the season, PSU took Minnesota to the wire on the road, only losing 77-72....that's where RU has to be, so the 10 to 12 B1G or other losses, are right there.
Losing 89-54 @ Purdue ....i know a loss is a loss, but losing 35 can't happen, even to a powerhouse like Purdue at home...
As a comparison, Iowa lost at Purdue by 16, Minnesota lost by 10, Nebraska lost by 19, PSU lost by 12 and Illinois lost by 17. All of these results are a little more respectable.
Lost at home to NW by 8...that has to be flipped to a win by 8.
Lost at Ohio state by 14....has to be.6 to 8 points, not bouncing between 14 and 18 points all game long.
Lost at home to Michigan by 12 (never really in the game), no runs against a tough Michigan team.
Signs of improvement was a loss by only 11 to Final 4 Michigan State. That was the signal, along with Iowa on the road and Illinois, Norrhwestern and Penn State on the road, that progress was being made.
I know we "think", we're competing against another bubble team in the SEC, ACC or Big 12.....but it really comes down to matchups and how we do in league....you can't go 9-11 and 1-1 in the B1G tourney and have 7 of the 11 losses be non-competitive or losses to teams we need to beat.
